


and i can tell just what you want (you don't want to be alone)

by kdee



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pining, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post S6, Post Season 6, Post-S6, Reunions, how many paragraphs can i write about eye contact? more than i anticipated it turns out, keith? being a gay disaster? its more likely than you think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 18:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15346029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdee/pseuds/kdee
Summary: Lance is avoiding him.It only takes some choice encounters for Keith to pick it up: downward cast eyes when they pass each other in setting up camp, twisting away from Keith’s wolf when she inquisitively sniffs at him next to Keith, being uncharacteristically quiet when he unsubtly mentions that the naturally occurring springs on the planet they’re resting on are uncannily similar to Earth’s.In fact, Lance seems to be at some sort of odds with all the paladins.





	and i can tell just what you want (you don't want to be alone)

**Author's Note:**

> is this Another fic of keith breaking the ice with lance post-s6? you bet! just so you know, lance's eyes are brown in this fic.
> 
> title is from two door cinema club's 'what you know'.

Lance is avoiding him.

It only takes some choice encounters for Keith to pick it up: downward cast eyes when they pass each other in setting up camp, twisting away from Keith’s wolf when she inquisitively sniffs at him next to Keith, being uncharacteristically quiet when he unsubtly mentions that the naturally occurring springs on the planet they’re resting on are uncannily similar to Earth’s.

In fact, Lance seems to be at some sort of odds with all the paladins. His quips over the comm are half-hearted, to say the least, and he defers most conversation to Coran when they near Myn-87, a close uninhabited planet. The plan, Keith had explained as the group gathered after touchdown, was to take the shortest route to Olkarion, where they could take advantage of any healing technology for Shiro before their journey to Earth. Lance’s face flinched at the mention of Shiro and Keith had immediately remembered Lance’s tearful face.

 _You should have reassured him_ , he thinks furiously.

Keith sighs, wiping a hand down his face and breaking his long stare at Lance’s form.

_Or… someone should have._

The former Blue Paladin sits away from the others, his only company, surprisingly, being Keith’s wolf. Keith remembers how he’d first greeted Lance with a wince – brusque, dismissive, and had left Lance with a fallen face. He regrets that his reunion with the team, with _Lance_ , had been mixed with Lotor’s betrayal, that he had been so focused on stopping Lotor he’d forgotten how great it felt to be back with his team after such a long absence.

Then he glances at the scene around him, troubled. Hunk and Pidge sit nearest to the fire, discussing how they could modify the Lions’ rudimentary healing technology for Shiro in rapid-fire jargon and Allura sits with Romelle, backs to the fire and whispering to Coran. Keith’s gaze returns to Lance, watching how his hand cards gently through his wolf’s fur. How Lance’s hair has grown a few inches in Keith’s absence. It definitely falls a little more into his face and…

_God._

Keith feels eyes on his back and turns his gaze witheringly onto Krolia, who’s wearing a knowing smirk.

“ _What_.” Keith says. Krolia waves a hand vaguely towards Lance, affecting a nonchalant shrug.

“Just… observing you observing _him_.” She replies. Keith’s stare is unwavering, and she rolls her eyes. “You talked about him enough on the Quantum Abyss.”

Keith narrows his eyes and then huffs a breath through his nose, belatedly remembering how a question about his team had turned into an embarrassing tangent about Lance. “If you’re trying to get me to go and talk to him…” He brushes himself off and rises to stubbornly meet Krolia’s cocked brow. “I was _just_ about to.”

Krolia hums and he rolls his eyes as he turns on his heel. Approaching Lance, a quiet trepidation rises through him – he steadily exhales as he settles beside Lance, the other boy startling at Keith’s arrival.

Keith opens his mouth, brain stalling on how to start what might inevitably be an awkward inquiry into Lance’s wellbeing when he makes the mistake of looking up and into Lance’s eyes, which are watching him curiously. The dark atmosphere of the planet has made them black, reflecting the night-like sky and glittering with the remnants of the fire behind them. Keith finds himself thinking that he would gladly stare at these eyes forever.

“Why are you avoiding me?” Keith blurts instead. His wolf huffs, stretches herself as she stands and stalks away, as if embarrassed at Keith’s ineptitude.

Keith agrees.

Lance’s gaze flickers between Keith’s and the ground before blinking at his restless hands.

“I’m not.” He finally replies.

“Lance—”

“You come back—” Lance interrupts, Keith falling silent, “looking… all grown up. And with a _mom_.” Lance sighs, eyes narrowed at some point in the planet’s atmosphere. “You’re different. And it didn’t really feel real… back then,” Lance waves his hand, indicating what had led them to this planet. “But now it is. So that’s why.”

Lance doesn’t look as if he’s divulged everything, still frowning at the ground. Keith struggles for a few moments, biting his lip. In spite of the war they’re fighting, Lance thrives on routine, and to have a teammate suddenly transform overnight…

“You’re right.” Keith says. He watches clouds of gas pass throughout the planet’s atmosphere, worrying his bottom lip. Lance turns to look at him, but Keith is afraid of what else he’ll blurt if he meets that dark gaze again. He sighs. “A lot has happened since I left, with Lotor and Shiro, which I know affected you and… I guess the way I came back didn’t exactly help things.” Keith looks down at his hands, only aware of how Lance is still intently watching him in his periphery. “I’m. I’m sorry with how I brushed you off when I came back.”

“God, don’t _do_ that.” Lance suddenly groans, flopping onto his back.

“Do what?” Keith splutters. He turns to finally look at Lance, who has an arm thrown across his face, bottom lip firmly tucked beneath his teeth. Keith stalls at the change of pace, frantically wondering if he said anything wrong before Lance speaks again.

“Be so…” Lance’s voice sounds suspiciously thick, and Keith feels anger swell up abruptly inside him, suddenly livid at whoever reduced Lance to this. Lance, whose mouth is pressed into a tight line, struggling with his next words. “Considerate. It’s off-brand.”

_Considerate?_

Keith struggles with that one word for what seems like an age, wonders how the _fuck_ the team has been treating him if _Keith_ is considerate, until Lance sniffs and – the anger dissipates, Keith left desperately grappling with the need to alleviate what seems like _months_ of hurt, wishing it were a tangible thing he could just get rid of. He watches as Lance flings his arm resting across his face back to ground, leaving Keith to see Lance’s eyes screwed shut, brow furrowed as if… as if trying not to cry.

“Lance.” He whispers, throat tight.

He watches Lance’s chest as it heaves in a huge breath, watches Lance’s blink open. The other boy stares at the expanse of space above him, seems to come to some sort of decision as he tracks the sea of stars, before slowly rising back to his original position. The movement brushes Lance’s hand against Keith’s and the effect is immediate: Keith’s heart seizes in his chest, and when Lance turns his head to look at him again, there is a terrifying moment where he wonders if Lance can hear his heart beating out his chest. Keith looks back at Lance for the second time that night and sees the hurt still there, glassy in his eyes.

Something inside him stills. Lance’s eyes slide quietly away and his jaw clenches, obviously still struggling with what he wants or doesn’t want to say. Keith knows that Lance doesn’t usually struggle with words and that this admission must be important, knows that this is bigger than avoiding Keith, or the anxiety of returning to Earth. _Patience yields focus_ appears unbidden in his mind, and he realises that the phrase is applicable to more things than he realised.

Lance must realise Keith is willing to wait the whole night for him to speak, as a small, crooked smile appears on his face, and Keith feels a similar smile on his own.

 _You’re different_ , he had said. Lance still hasn’t moved his hand.

“Everything’s different.” Lance admits quietly, eyes flitting between Keith and the ground. Keith nods slowly. “And by that I mean,” Lance briefly meets Keith’s gaze, “everything became different when you left.” Keith’s fingers curl in regret, and still Lance doesn’t move his hand. “Shiro’s clone was getting worse, Hunk and Pidge became, like, a _duo_ , and then Lotor and—and _Allura_ happened too.”

And it clicks. Why Lance was avoiding Hunk and Pidge, too. Why he was avoiding Allura.

“And you couldn’t speak to anyone.” Keith surmises. “Must’ve been hard.”

Lance turns to look at him, something heavy and unreadable flickering over his face.

“What?” Keith asks. Lance clicks his tongue.

“When did you become so…” Lance mouths around several words. “Emotionally intuitive?”

That surprises a laugh out of Keith, and he’s rewarded with Lance’s smile, genuine and almost… shy. He’s struck by the question, mulling it over for a few moments and briefly remembers the long conversations he had held with his mother on the Quantum Abyss.

“I mean.” Keith starts. “I _did_ spend a long time on a space whale.”

“A _what?”_

Keith bursts into laughter again, and Lance’s shock abruptly melts into something more amused, softer.

“God, I missed you.” Lance says.

Almost immediately, his face flushes red, surprised by his own admission, and Keith is almost _one hundred_ percent sure Lance can hear his heart thumping in his chest this time.

“Yeah?” Keith manages to choke out. Lance still looks mortified, but grants a single nod. Somehow, the sight is so endearing to Keith that he has enough courage to nudge Lance’s hand that brushes against his own. “I did too.”

“Huh.” Lance says, slightly strangled, blinking rapidly at the ground. “Nice. You should, um. Tell me about that space whale sometime.”

Keith smiles, absently wondering how much he does that unknowingly in Lance’s company. He can feel the fire slowly dying out somewhere behind him, watches as stars blink in and out of sight, peeking from behind gas clouds lazily circling Myn-87. Lance shifts beside him, leaning more heavily on one shoulder. It brings their hands closer together and their fingers almost overlap.

“Yeah. I will.”

Neither of them move their hands.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed! follow me on twitter @antikogane for more vld chaos :-)


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